‘Cheers’ to acamprosate in reducing the costs of alcoholism

Abstract

A camprosate is one of the few drugs for treating alcoholism that has been shown in very large clinical trials to reduce relapse rates among ‘weaned’ patients. However, because acamprostate is an expensive agent, there is a need to look beyond its efficacy to determine whether the drug represents economic value. At the recent inaugural European conference of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research [ Cologne, Germany; December 1998 ], Mr Lieven Annemans from research organisation Health Economics and Disease Management in Mechelen, Brussels, presented an economic study of acamprostate [‘Campral’; Merck KGaA] in maintaining abstinence in alcohol-dependent patients.